Samsung Galaxy A54 vs. Samsung Galaxy S23 FE
The popular Samsung Galaxy A54 and the new Galaxy S23 FE are similarly priced smartphones that have become hot offers during the Black Friday craziness. And that is why we’ve decided to pit those two against each other and see which one turns out to be worthy of getting and why.
The Galaxy S23 FE is more like a Galaxy S22 FE that's late to the party as it features the previous generation chips, and it shares much of the S22 series hardware. The extra weight and thicker bezels give away its less-than-premium nature, thus positioning it closer to the Galaxy A series instead.
Table of Contents:
Let’s begin by comparing the complete specs sheets. You can check out our editor's assessment in the following video or in the text further down below.
Size comparison
The Galaxy A54 and the Galaxy S23 FE feature identical designs, and they are also similar in size and weight. Both smartphones are waterproofed, feature two flat Gorilla Glass 5 panels, and similarly curved matte frames.
The Galaxy S23 FE has a bit more premium build, though – it has an aluminum frame, while the A54 utilizes a plastic one. And then – the S23 FE is IP68-rated, while the A54 – IP67. The latter means the S23 FE can survive up to 1.5m deep water, while the A54 can withstand water depth of up to 1m.
Galaxy S23 FE and Galaxy A54
Aesthetically, both smartphones are good-looking, and unless a metal frame is a must-have for some reason, both would please just the same.
Display comparison
The Galaxy A54 features a Super AMOLED screen, while the Galaxy S23 FE has a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel. However, no matter what Samsung calls these, they are effectively the same panels.
Galaxy S23 FE and Galaxy A54
Both panels are 6.4-inch in diagonal and have the same 1,080 x 2,340 pixels resolution. Both support 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ streaming. Oh, and both have the same small punch-hole for the selfie camera.
And, quite expectedly, both screens have nearly identical brightness capabilities - about 980nits in Auto mode and about 450nits with manual control.
Both screens offer accurate color calibration.
And both phones use only the fixed 120Hz and 60Hz refresh rate modes, unlike higher-tier Galaxies, which offer more granular control over the refresh rate.
Finally, the two Galaxies support HDR10+ streaming, and are successfully recognized across Netflix and the likes.
Battery life
The Galaxy A54 is powered by a 5,000 mAh battery, while the Galaxy S23 FE has a smaller 4,500 mAh cell.
The Galaxy S23 FE performed worse across all of our active battery tests but voice calls. It scored at least 1 hour less on the web and 2 hours less on the video streaming and gaming scenarios, resulting in the subpar 9:45h of Active Use Score.
When you account for the difference in battery capacity, the two chipsets appear to be equally power efficient overall. The Snapdragon chipset inside the S23 FE, however, has a much more power-efficient modem, resulting in much longer talk time.
Charging speed
The Galaxy A54 and S23 FE are both rated for 25W fast wired charging. The two Galaxies recharged equally fast in our test despite the battery capacity difference.
Wireless charging and reverse wireless charging are supported only on the Galaxy S23 FE.
Speaker test
The Galaxy A54 and the Galaxy S23 FE both have hybrid stereo speaker setups with a dedicated bottom-firing speaker for one channel and an amplified earpiece for the other.
The Galaxy S23 FE has the louder speaker system – it scored a Very Good mark on our loudness test, while the Galaxy S23 – a Good mark. They both offer nicely rich and deep audio, but if we are to rate the quality as well – we’d say it is also Very Good for the S23 FE and Good for the A54.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy A54 is powered by the midrange Samsung Exynos 1380 chipset with an octa-core CPU with 4x performance cores and 4x power-saving cores plus a 5-core Mali-G68. The base model has 4GB RAM, there are also versions with 6GB RAM, and the top one (ours) has 8GB of RAM.
The Galaxy S23 FE brings back the chipset fragmentation, and different markets get different hardware platforms, both of flagship descent. The US version gets the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC (our review unit), while the global model elsewhere is based on the Exynos 2200 chip. Both hardware platforms are one generation older than the one inside the regular Galaxy S23, lifted from the Galaxy S22 series. Both chipsets have octa-core CPUs with one Prime core and powerful GPUs.
Quite expectedly, while still good, the Galaxy A54 has inferior performance compared to the Galaxy S23 FE. This goes through every aspect – the Galaxy S23 has 40% faster CPU and 3x faster GPU.
While the Galaxy S23 FE is a much faster smartphone, it is worth noting the phone throttles big time, and it may lose as much as half of its performance after a while. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A54 doesn’t throttle as much, if at all. Still, regarding real-life gaming performance, the Galaxy S23 FE would still offer better graphics.
Camera comparison
The biggest trump card of the Galaxy S23 FE is its cameras. See, while technically both smartphones have a total of four cameras each - three at the back, one at the front - the Galaxy S23 FE has a 3x telephoto camera, while the Galaxy A54 has a 5MP macro imager instead.
The Galaxy S23 FE supports 8K24fps and 4K60fps video capturing with its main camera, as well as 4K60fps with its selfie camera, while the Galaxy A54 maxes out at 4K30 across all cameras.
Both Galaxies have the similar 50MP OIS primary cameras.
The ultrawide cameras on both phones have 12MP sensors with similar ultrawide-angle lenses.
We already talked about the 3x zoom camera on the Galaxy S23 FE - it's 8MP, while the Galaxy A54 has a 5MP macro shooter here instead.
Finally, the Galaxy S23 FE has a 10MP selfie camera with a fixed focus, while the Galaxy A54 has a 32MP Quad-Bayer imager with FF that saves 12MP selfies (instead of 8MP).
The main cameras on both phones offer pleasing photos, though there is a difference in favor of the Galaxy S23 FE. The Galaxy S23 FE saves slightly more detailed photos with a balanced look and just the right level of sharpening. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A54 has smeared grass plus over-sharpened foliage and buildings. The color rendering is different on both phones, but they tend to over-saturate the photos quite often. Long story short, the Galaxy S23 FE has more natural-looking photos.
Same goes for the ultrawide cameras - the Galaxy S23 FE has slightly more detailed images with less sharpening. But here, the difference is minor. All photos offer enough resolved detail and low noise, and the field of view is impressively wide. The corner softness is minor, and the images do not exhibit a fish-eye look.
The zoomed photos are much better on the Galaxy S23 FE as it features a telephoto camera. Sure, the S23 FE upscales its 8MP output to 12MP, but the photos still offer longer zoom and more detail. Then there is the Galaxy A54, which offer 2x zoom via some sort of high-quality digital magnification and ather results are quite good, though a bit artificial looking because of the AI upscaling.
The Galaxy A54 is the only one with a macro camera and the 5MP macro shoots are quite nice and will do for Instagram.
Galaxy A54 - macro
Finally, the 10MP selfies from the Galaxy S23 FE look more detailed and with a better-developed subject when compared to the 12MP selfies from the Galaxy A54. That is because the A54 upscales its photos from 8MP to 12MP and you can tell by the softness. On the other hand, the colors on Galaxy A54 selfies are realistic, while the S23 FE's - not so much.
Galaxy A54: 1x • 0.6x • 2x • selfie
Galaxy S23 FE: 1x • 0.6x • 3x • selfie
Samsung's camera app supports Auto Night Mode in low-light conditions - it appears as a small moon icon, and if you tap on it - you will disable it. It usually takes 1s less than the regular night mode, but we found the Auto Night Mode (where it triggered) and the regular Night Mode output to be identical across all cameras.
Note that sometimes, or most of the time, the Galaxy A54 does not automatically trigger the Night Mode for the ultrawide camera, and we had to turn it on manually.
The Galaxy S23 FE once again offers a tiny bit better photos here - slightly more detailed, less noisy, and with more realistic color saturation. It's a minor difference, but visible nevertheless.
The same conclusions apply to ultrawide cameras.
The zoomed photos are better on the Galaxy S23 FE, even if noisier - they are more detailed and offer more magnification, obviously. But do bear in mind that the Galaxy S23 FE rarely uses its zoom camera at night and often offers 3x digital zoom over the primary cam, which will bring it on par with the Galaxy A54 capabilities.
Galaxy A54: 1x • 0.6x • 2x
Galaxy S23 FE: 1x • 0.6x • 3x
Lastly, let's talk about video capturing. The Galaxy S23 FE can do up to 8K24 (main) videos and 4K60 (main and front) capturing, while the Galaxy A54 maxes out at 4K30. Optional video stabilization (EIS) is available to all cameras on both smartphones, though it doesn't work on the 1080p60 mode on the Galaxy A54.
Surprisingly, the daylight videos from the Galaxy A54's main camera are more detailed and with natural sharpening than the ones from the Galaxy S23 FE. Not a big difference, but still.
The Galaxy A54's ultrawide camera offers slightly more detailed videos, even if a bit over-sharpened, and with lower noise levels.
Quite expectedly, the telephoto camera on the Galaxy S23 FE has much better 4K videos.
Galaxy A54: 1x • 0.6x • 2x
Galaxy S23 FE: 1x • 0.6x • 3x
The selfie camera on the Galaxy S23 FE offers more detailed 4K videos, but with worse color rendition.
Galaxy A54 • Galaxy S23 FE
The Galaxy S23 FE has a minor edge over the A54 when it comes to dynamic range and color saturation at night.
Galaxy A54: 1x • 0.6x • 2x
Galaxy S23 FE: 1x • 0.6x • 3x
Here's a glimpse of how the Galaxy A54's main camera compares in image quality to the Galaxy S23 FE's in our Photo compare tool.
And here's how the Galaxy A54 main camera compares in video quality to the Galaxy S23 FE's in our Video compare tool.
Verdict
The Galaxy A54 and the Galaxy S23 FE are quite similar, yet with enough differences to make you wonder which one to get.
The Galaxy S23 FE costs $400 in the US right now, even if it launched at $600 mere days ago. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A54 price has dropped down to $300, making it the cheaper offer.
And as a cheaper smartphone, the Galaxy A54 is a well-rounded mid-range smartphone with a solid build, an excellent screen, long-lasting battery life, and an overall good camera experience. Its performance is quite alright, too.
The Galaxy S23 FE is a sort of flagship phone, even if it comes a bit late. It has a more premium build with its aluminum frame and IP68 rating, more powerful hardware that allows for better graphics and DeX support, and better photo quality, plus a real telephoto camera. Its battery life turned out average, though, and its GPU throttling is huge.
Long story short – you either get the Galaxy A54 for its lower price and solid overall specs sheet, or you spend a bit more and get the Galaxy S23 FE for its flagship features and better cameras.
- The better battery life.
- The macro camera.
- The expandable storage.
- The cheaper price.
Get the Galaxy A54 for:
- The more premium build.
- Samsung DeX support.
- The louder and nicer speakers.
- The 3x zoom camera and better selfies.
- The considerably faster chipset.
- The wireless charging
Get the Galaxy S23 FE for:
Reader comments
- ponCik
- 26 Apr 2024
- Fv1
I don't know where you live, but xiaomi 13T is more expensive than both so it's not actually comparable.
- Winnipeg
- 11 Feb 2024
- nxe
How can a digital zoom be better than an optical zoom lol
- Mr. Volinski
- 12 Dec 2023
- i8u
Frankly I agree, the difference here is simply too small, the A54 is the better deal. If you're gonna buy the s23 FE, you might as well go to a S23 ultra, it's not much of a price stretch and at least with that you have pretty much no compr...
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